


Bullet Through the Heart

by oceanfirefly



Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: AU, Guns, M/M, Virtual Reality, virtual reality au
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-08-05
Updated: 2014-07-26
Packaged: 2018-02-10 11:29:56
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,499
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2023464
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/oceanfirefly/pseuds/oceanfirefly
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Virtual Reality (kinda SAO/GGO-inspired?) AU where instead of volleyball our favorite dorks are on a PvP team!</p>
<p>(Even though this is partly a KageHina fic, it's going to be a little while before the fluff really gets developed...trust me it'll happen soon enough!)</p>
            </blockquote>





	Bullet Through the Heart

**Author's Note:**

> I was pretty lucky to be able to beta test the upcoming MMO Destiny (thank you Playstation Beta Code drops!) and while I was playing through part of the story I started thinking about what it would be like if the Haikyuu! crew was kinda in a SAO/GGO-based setting instead of volleyball. And there were PvP teams? But of course the KageHina romanticist in me also decided to shine through....that aside. So here is the beginnings to what (hopefully) will be a multi-chapter fic! Please bear in mind that the last time I wrote anything, let alone a fanfic, was maybe 5 years ago, so my writing skills are a bit rusty.

He tried to ignore his trembling as he held the small cardboard box in his hands, his face so close to the cover he could feel his warm breath bouncing off back at him. Heart pounding in excitement, it felt like each quickly beating pulse rushed over his entire body. This was it. One year of working part time and odd jobs had led to this triumphant moment.

"I finally did it!" he proclaimed proudly, flopping backwards onto his bed, not even moving the box an inch away from his face. He continued to stare at the cover, his eyes sparkling.

"Shoyo Hinata. You'll go blind at that rate." he heard a voice from the doorway, and looking over his stomach he saw his mother with her hands on her hips. He sat up with a start.

"Gwaah! Don't just come barging in like that!"

"I heard a thump from downstairs," she continued, crossing her arms, "I was afraid you forgot to stop breathing. You were shaking like crazy when you walked in the house. Well, now I can see you are fine." She sighed, starting to shut the door behind her. "I'll keep your sister busy for the next few hours, but remember you did promise to play with her later today."

"Alright alright!" he said with a smile. He leaned back onto his bed, staring up at the ceiling for only mere seconds before moving the box back to it's uncomfortably close position to his face.

"I'm one step closer...to becoming like him..."

Closing his eyes, Hinata recalled that streaming event, that one moment that changed his life.

\- - -

He was only a second year in middle school, casually browsing the net on the family computer and rewatching his favorite cat videos, when under the "recommended for you" section popped up a current livestream for the newest game virtual reality game  _Beyond Sight_. A progressive game way beyond it's time, through a helmet one could transport their consciousness into the online game, exploring and competing in a total warfare-based world. Never much of a video game player even with the original controller-console games from his childhood, he squinted at the screen, wondering what on earth had made his account think he would even consider watching something related gaming. He sighed, figuring it was probably the result of letting his younger sister use his account. Nonetheless, he hovered his mouse over the link to another video of a parrot imitating famous celebrities.

It's not that he hated video games, in all honesty he thought the flashy graphics and bright lights and sounds from the commercials seemed cool--it was just something he never could fully enjoy. When he was younger he would occasionally go to his classmates houses and almost always they would want to play first person shooter games. Hinata was more than happy to play starting out, however he quickly discovered he was incredibly lacking in a rather crucial skill: the ability to shoot accurately. Bullets would easily go past enemies, and the enemies he did end up hitting were a fluke. Eventually his classmates stopped inviting him, or maybe that was the same time he started making up reasons to avoid going over to play--plain and simple: a person with no innate concept of accuracy was ill-equipped to play in a shooting game. 

"BROTHER IT'S MY TURN TO USE THE COMPUTER!" his sister had shouted when she barged in the room that day, throwing herself on him and hanging her arms around his neck.

"Urk! Natsu you already were on the computer for an hour today!" he said, looking back to her. "It's my turn to use the computer!"

"Wait....I thought you didn't like video games?"

"Huh?" Hinata turned around and to his dismay had accidentally clicked on the streaming event in the commotion. Flashing lights, sounds of explosions and gunfire, and yelling emitted from the computer. "Aaah! Crap!" he yelled, moving his mouse to hit the back button. Yet something caught his eye, making him reconsider. 

Flashing on the screen was a PvP deathmatch between two teams in a world Hinata never even dreamed of, each team with their own variety of marksmen and soldier-like classes. A small scoreboard hovered over the righthand section of the screen, rising with almost every gunshot heard. 

The world's camera focused on a young man holding an automatic rifle, the nickname _Small Giant_ hovering above his head, spraying bullets every this way and that. It _seemed_ like he was just shooting for the sake of shooting, yet every bullet found a desired target. If there was a commentator excitedly discussing the teams' different strategies, Hinata paid no attention to them. For that brief moment, Hinata was filled with complete and utter awe. His eyes wide, he instinctively inched closer as if to get into the action himself. It was minutes later he realized he was grabbing the screen as well. 

"BROTHEEEER!" 

Snapping back to reality, he turned to his sister, who was now pulling on his arm, her face in a pout. He smiled, ruffling her hair and switching to a new video. Sure, the prospect of actually being able to play a shooting game was enticing, but Hinata remembered all too well the familiar click that happened when he ran completely out of ammo, and the frustration of never getting a hit. No, what that player was doing was not something he could do. And yet....

It would be mere days later he would find himself looking up the price of a head console.

It would be a year later he would finally have worked enough to afford to buy one. 

\- - -

Hinata sat up with a huff, gently opening the package and taking the console as if he was holding the wealth of the world in his hands. He made sure to purchase the console with  _Beyond Sight_ already pre-downloaded so he wouldn't have to figure  _that one_ out. The instruction manual fell out of the box and onto his lap with a plop. Placing the headgear down beside him, he quickly picked up the manual and skimmed it, too excited to actually take much in. Throwing the manual off to the side, he picked up the gear and placed it on his head. He laid back down, breathing hard. This would be his first jump, and he really had no idea what it would be like. Would it feel like his soul would be sucked out of him? Would he be shocked unconscious? It doesn't hurt, right? It's not like he discussed video games with anyone. Clenching the sheets, he let out a shaky gasp, closed his eyes, and breathed out "Start connection", though he was pretty sure it came out as an unintelligible mess of syllables.

It must not have been that bad, for he suddenly found himself in a white room, a semi-transparent blue screen in front of him, the words "WELCOME TO BEYOND SIGHT, SOLDIER" flashing. He looked down at his hands.  _Huh. Didn't feel a thing._ _  
_

"Welcome!" a woman's voice echoed. "In a few short moments, you will be directed to the server. While we prepare your avatar, would you like to take the beginner's tutorial?"

A small screen flashed before Hinata's eyes with the statement written before him, and the buttons "Yes" and "No" before him. Completely caught by surprise, Hinata jumped back, flailing his arms. In his panic, one of his hands accidentally hit "No". 

"Understood. You will now be transported to the world of  _Beyond Sight_." Trumpet music blared, and Hinata started looking around in a panic. He most definitely did NOT mean to skip what would probably be the most important part of the game. "Stay sharp, keep focus, and defeat your opponent!"

"Gaaaah! Wait I didn't mean to do that!" Hinata shouted, waving his arms outstretched in front of him. Or what were his arms, as they were quickly pixelating and disappearing. "Wait! Stop!" But it was too late. He was  _so_ screwed.

 

Hinata opened his eyes one at a time, and was bombarded with the dull roar of the bustling crowd before him. He took a few steps forward, then stopping and staring at the town, blown away by the sheer magnitude of the place. Buildings towered over him (as did most of the people), and the people of crowd before him were walking left and right, carrying guns, ammo, and gear of all different sizes and gaming levels. Amongst the mess of people, a few groups littered about, with their members wearing similar-looking gear. Hinata's eyes glanced left and right, looking for....

"Hey kid, you are in the way." Hinata felt a shove forward and turned around, fist ready, only to come face to face with a  _really_ tall and buff guy in newcomers clothes just like Hinata. "You're holding the rest of us up."

"Eerk!" Hinata squeaked, hands in front of him, and quickly backed up, accidentally running into someone behind him. 

"Watch it dumbass," he heard a voice behind him. He turned around to see a dark-haired guy that looked the same age as him, clad in gear of a mix of dark blue and grey. Even though he wasn't nearly as tall as the guy before, he had an even more menacing aura. Hooked on one shoulder was what Hinata believed to be some sort of sniper, and the way the other guy was looking at him Hinata was sure he was about to become his next target. 

"Y-you wanna fight?" Hinata said, his voice shaking as he weakly held up his fists. 

The other guy's lip curled. "In a world where you are either targeting or are targeted, if you can't even look at your opponent with some sort of dignity, you shouldn't even have picked up this game." He shifted his sniper on his shoulder, causing Hinata to tense up with a start, and began walking away from a stunned Hinata. 

"H-hey! I'm not done talking to you!" Hinata called out moments later, but it was clear the raven-haired boy wasn't going to listen to him. He watched as the boy joined in with a team wearing similar colors, all with a murderous look on their faces. Hinata watched as they all simultaneously made some swiping hand motion, screens popping up before them, before they all vanished in little flahes of blue. 

"Gah!" Hinata jumped back, very much not expecting that. Curiously, he tried to mimic the hand motion, but found himself unable to replicate it. "Damn it, they were too far away for me to see it clearly enough..." he muttered, trying again until he found himself to the point of basically flailing about. Meanwhile, he was constantly in the way of other people walking around, and received a few more death stares that promptly sent him hugging the nearest wall. This was a disaster. Maybe he should have stay away from video games after all. 

"Do you...need help? You're new, right?" Hinata heard a voice beside him, and he turned around to see a boy with silvery hair, clad with black and orange gear. He was wearing a smile so gentle Hinata swore he saw a halo for a moment. He had a rifle somewhat similar to the unpleasant player before, however while the first boy seemed to want to give Hinata a surefire death (no pun intended), this newcomer seemed genuinely concerned. Hinata felt his eyes well up in tears of relief.

The other boy shifted uncomfortably, the smile wavering a little bit. "Oh, no I'm sorry...I..I-I didn't mean to make you cry!" he said, his hands out defensively. "I mean, I am supposed to be meeting my team here but I logged on an hour early to browse the marketplace beforehand....but you seem like you needed help so...." 

Hinata shook his head, blinking his tears back. "No no I'm just so happy I finally found someone who didn't want to use me as their next target practice!" He made a motion of pulling a trigger. "Could you...could you really help me?" he asked, learning closer and his eyes sparkling. 

"Of course," he flashed a smile again, holding out his hand. "I'm Sugawara Koushi...Sorry I don't have a cool nickname you can call me by, but some of my teammates managed to earn one." 

"I'm Hinata Shoyou!" Hinata said a little too excitedly, bowing. "Please take care of me, Sugawara-san!" He raised his head. "...Nickname...? OH! You mean like the Small Giant?!" 

"Oh, you've heard about the Small Giant?"

Hinata straightened up, a huge grin on his face. "Last year I saw a stream with one of his team's matches, and he was all PEW PEW PEW PEW PEW PEW PEW!" He mimicked holding an automatic, pretending to shoot a row of enemies in front of him. "And hit hit everyone and they all went GWAAAAH and he went FWOOM PEW PEW!" He bounced up and down. "He looked like he was just shooting randomly but he managed to hit everything in his path! He's amazing!" He stopped bouncing for a moment, one hand behind his head and a sheepish grin on his face. "Actually he's the reason why I decided to play this game."

Sugawara watched him, his brown eyes wide in surprise. "You seem like you really admire him."

"Yeah!" Hinata nodded furiously so intensely his whole body appeared to be shaking. "I'm going to be just like him one day!" 

Sugawara lightly laughed. "Well then, we should first start with the basics. What do you remember from the tutorial?"

Hinata flushed a slight pink. "Er...not much...." He looked down, twiddling his thumbs. "...actually I panicked and skipped it by accident." He looked back up to see Sugawara shaking his head in disbelief. "This might take a little longer than an hour," Sugawara sighed, swiping in front of him and scrolling through a screen. Hinata mimicked the motion and was able to pull up a screen of his own, the words "Menu" hugging the top. Sugawara continued going through screens, then typing something out before looking back up at an overwhelmed Hinata. "I told my team I'm going to be a little late...--Hinata-san?" 

"Erm....I don't know what I'm doing." Hinata looked back up, completely lost. From what Sugawara could tell from looking at the other side of Hinata's semi-transparent screen, Hinata appeared to be in his inventory, which looked very much empty. 

"You haven't even bought a gun yet?" Sugawara looked around hurriedly, spotting a sign pointing towards the marketplace. "This might work out, actually. Why don't we head to the market place? I'll instruct you on using your menu and the general kinematics for the game on the way there." He gave Hinata a reassuring smile, who returned with a huge smile and an enthusiastic nod.

"Right then..." 

And so the two of them began making their way towards the marketplace in the middle of the town. Sugawara did the best he could explaining the different features of the game, how to open and navigate the menu, etc. Some things for Hinata required a little more few attempt, but when Sugawara accepted Hinata's first menu action, a friend request, Hinata was practically beaming. Hinata smiled at the screen, the words "Sugawara Koushi has accepted your friend request" shining back at him. Sugawara waved off his gratitude with an exhausted smile.

Before long, they reached the marketplace, which if the starting plaza was considered crowded, this place was basically a package of anchovies. Rows of merchant stalls and tents stretched far and wide, Hinata unable to see its end. Small groups huddled around each vendor, and he could hear shouts of auctions and bartering taking place. Teams roamed in packs, eying their competition with fearsome gazes. He felt himself instinctively shift a little behind Sugawara.  _Wait, why does that symbol on his shoulder pad looks awfully familiar....?_

"Hinata-san." He looked back up to Sugawara, who was motioning towards the stalls to the far left and began walking. He followed closely behind, his eyes darting around trying to take in as much as the scene as possible...while avoiding the gazes of other players. He could feel their stares weighing down on him, surveying him as if he was easy prey. Well, technically he  _was_ easy prey. He had no equipment, was dressed in beginners clothes, and didn't even have a gun equipped. If it weren't for the fact that the town was a safe zone, as Sugawara told him, he would be shot and whatever little beginner's money he had would looted on the spot. He shivered. 

They made their way down to the blue tents, which color Hinata was told would have beginner's equipment and guns. They eventually went into a tent which had a plethora of different rifles, pistols, and other guns alike. Hinata gazed at them, starting to feel overwhelmed again. Sugawara turned to him. "Right....so!" He motioned towards the guns laying across the first table. "With your beginner's starting package, you're really only limited to the basic of basic guns. We're lucky this game doesn't limit you to gun-specific classes, which means you can try out as many different guns as you can afford but..." he turned around, placing three of the guns side by side: a sniper rifle, a pistol, and a semi-automatic. " Buying one of these three should give you just enough spare cash to get the appropriate gear. Remember what I told you about how your gun choice should affect your equipment?" 

Hinata cocked his head to the side, closing his eyes in concentration. "I remember what you said, but I really don't think I get it." He crossed his arms in frustration with himself.

Sugawara sighed, his shoulders dropping in disappointment. "That's okay," he smiled to Hinata. "I guess right now we should just focus on what kind of gun best suits you." He turned to the storekeeper. "Though if you are really determined to be like the Small Giant, you should start with the semi-automatic right here," he handed Hinata a bulky-looking gun, which Hinata had to handle with two hands. "You have to pull the trigger with every shot, but you don't have to worry about constantly re-loading, being at too close or too far range, and it's pretty versatile."

Hinata's eyes shined for the billionth time since he met Sugawara. "Then this is what I'll get!" He turned to the storekeeper. "Hey mister! Can I get this?"

"If you have the credits, you can," the storekeeper replied, swiping quickly and a screen popped up before Hinata. He completed the transaction with a satisfied grin and the gun dematerialized from his hands. He looked around frantically until Sugawara patted him on the shoulder and motioned his own screen open. Hinata did likewise, navigating to his inventory, then equipping his gun per Sugawara's instruction. Sugawara nodded in approval. "Now, let's go get you some equipment."

It was a much easier task in picking out equipment than picking out a gun. Hinata decided on some light green armor that focused on speed more than defense, but had enough defense to protect him so he wasn't immediately wiped out if he got in a pinch. Hinata stared at himself in the stall's mirror, making "gwaah" noises and turning his body this way and that. It wasn't long before he was posing in the mirror with his gun, pretending to shoot the invisible enemies within the mirror. He turned to Sugawara. "You sure it's okay to be skipping out on your friends to help a newbie like me?"

He was met with one Sugwara's angel smiles. "They don't mind. It's not like I was missing a practice or match or anything. Besides, you seemed like you really needed the help, and they understand. I _was_ going to look into some new equipment, but that can wait for another day. They are probably wondering where I am though!" He laughed.

"Although..." he continued, staring at Hinata's gun thoughtfully. "You probably don't want to be carrying around that everywhere. Here." Sugawara opened his own inventory and initiated a trade request to Hinata. Hinata curiously accepted, and a holster was added to his inventory. Hinata looked back up at Sugawara, his eyes wide. "Consider this a parting gift," Sugawara grinned. Hinata grinned. "Whoa! Thank you, Sugawara-san!"

Sugawara laughed. "No problem, just promise me this," he began, raising a finger. "When you get some experience, maybe form a team of your own, give me a call. I'd love to see how close you get to being like my old teammate. Who knows, maybe our team will cross paths in the future!"

Hinata nodded, "Of course!" And with that, Sugawara swiped his screen open and disappeared in a flash of orange. 

It was only a minute later Hinata then made the connection.

_Sugawara was from the same team as the Small Giant!_


End file.
